There were around £235m worth of approvals during the year, driven by home movers, rather than first-time buyers.

"Mortgages is a big growth area for us, and we are putting a lot of interest into growing that market share," Mr Kingston said.

Lending at the bank increased for the first time since the recession.

Both loan values and deposits increased during the period. Loans rose to £4.3bn, up 2%.

But deposits, the amount of cash being paid into Danske accounts, also rose by 5% in 2015.

Danske has also been reducing its costs and overheads over the last few years. In 2015, it was no different.

It reduced its staff numbers to 1,450 - down from 1,500 in 2014 - and slashed its branch numbers by more than half since 2005.

"Our lending book was up 2%, year-on-year," Mr Kingston said.

"That is really significant for us. That's the first time we have seen our lending book grow since the recession.

"For the first time, we are seeing more borrowing than repayment. Equally, our deposits were up 5%. The relationship between those two figures is an important one.

"There were a lot of businesses making money, earning, with discretionary power, that they were leaving in their bank account, that wasn't being spent."

Overall, a surge in the first half of the year helped deliver Danske its positive results, according to Mr Kingston. As for business lending, there was an upsurge in confidence, helping loan levels rise.

But profits for Danske are unlikely to remain as high over the next year or two, as writebacks become less a part of its numbers.

"We are through the vast majority of it (writebacks) at this stage. I would expect it to reduce significantly this year, and I would doubt it would be significant in the 2016 accounts," Mr Kingston said.